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Bread

Health Bread

A moist bran and molasses bread baked with baking powder and soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Health Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Mix the batter

  1. Sift the bran, salt, graham flour, white flour, and baking powder into a bowl.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and stir it into the molasses.

  3. Pour the sweet milk and melted butter into the dry ingredients, then add the molasses mixture and mix thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Divide the batter into 2 pans, allowing room for rising but not spreading.

  2. Bake immediately at 350°F (175°C) for 30 to 35 minutes.

Add optional fruit or nuts

  1. If using fruits or nuts, flour them slightly and add them to the batter last.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + molassestop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bran
Adds bulk and a coarse, hearty texture to the crumb.
White flour
Provides the main structure that holds the loaves together.
Baking powder
Releases gas to lift the batter as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to produce gas for rising and darker color.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep flavor and color.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flours and keeps the crumb moist and tender.

The step that matters

Bake immediately. Baking powder and baking soda begin releasing gas as soon as they meet liquid. Waiting before baking lets much of that lift escape, leaving denser bread.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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